Reviews by devilben02:

I feel like I can appreciate a variety of styles, enjoy nuance over boldness, and take simple pleasure in a straightforward pilsner. I just plain didn't enjoy this beer.

It looks about as good as a pilsner can, pouring with a golden straw yellow color and a dense pillow of off-white head. The aroma is dull and uninviting, though, with a musty, grassy character contrasted by some white bread. The flavor is even more disappointing, with my first taste being most comparable to dirt, and further tastes revealing a little lemon, but mostly a dry, stale cornbread character. The texture does what it can to bolster this beer's drinkability, with a medium-light body and a light carbonation that plays off of the light, dry flavor nicely.

Overall, however, this beer is just dull and earthy in an unsatisfying way. It is not as offensive as the descriptors I used above would indicate, but I'd never call this a good beer.

It's great to see Retro Lagers become more widely available--you know all of the hipsters are happy to see this.

Filtered clarity shows off the pale golden color. The aroma is a little dusty from the mild husky character of the malt; hint of spicy lemony hop in the back. Fluffy crispness, light bodied with a hint of residual dextrin in the body, so it's not too light. Simple, one-way malt flavor is pleasant and clean, with perhaps just a quick sting of husk in the middle. Hops drop a thin but sharp bitterness that does its job to balance the malt. Faint metallic salt taste fades quickly in the clean, dry, grainy finish.

Solid all around, everything you want in a Retro Lager--drinkability, clean palate and just enough flavor to be different from the mainstream. A fun, no-brainer beer that is perfect for a few rounds of slop cricket.

I bought Simpler times Pilsner hoping for a decent cheap beer. My cheap beer of choice is Yuengling, and while I didn't expect anything better, I was hoping for something better than BMC offerings/PBR, but... unfortunately didn't get it.

Appearance - Light/medium, very yellow. Nice fluffy head, very light small bubbles like a wheat beer.

Overall - Very hard to finish... pretty poor. I'd take a coors light over it, there're just too many off flavors to even remotely enjoy it. It tastes very corn forward, but there's no "crackery" backend to provide back to the sweetness.

$2.99 a 6'r at Trader Joe's was worth a shot for one of my favorite summer styles.

Pours a golden crystal clear yellow with a half finger white head of loose bubbles that melt too quickly to a faint ring. Intermittent streams of occasional carbonation rises from the bottom of the glass.

Aroma seems to be all about corn and butter. Incredibly buttery aroma. Only slight breadiness and I can't find the hops at all.

Butter isn't as strong in the taste but the corn is still there as the predominant grain. Burst of lemon hits before you swallow and fortunately lingers a bit to clean out the butter.

I can't say a lot for this beer because it really isn't very complex. Just disappointing. Hard to call it a German Pilsner...more like an American adjunct gone bad or poorly brewed.

Simpler "not Early" Times Pilsner 12 oz. bottle with no freshness date poured into an American pint glass.

A--One and a half finger white fizzy head that actually lasts pretty well. Not much retention but that's normal for the style, I feel. Body is a bit dark at a light caramel without much yellow on it.

S--Lots of wet grass and green apple, tiny bit of lemon tang, some sweetish pale malt notes. No off aromas I could detect, nothing even sulfuric. Clean and crisp smelling.

T--Similar to the nose, very similar, except with an added sour vinegar off the grassiness that complemented the green apple notes well. Definite noble hop bitterness present here. Also had a decent malt kick in the center of the profile before the ultra-clean finish. Maybe a bit of cooked corn in there from DMS, but i didn't catch much. Some metallic notes do come through, not in an obtrusive way but they shouldn't be there.

M&D--Mouthfeel's crisp, with very lively bubbles. Nothing astringent or thin coming through. Drinkability takes a knock because a beer this thin should have a lower abv, in my opinion (or a bigger taste profile, but that doesn't fit the style).

Not sure why everyone's beefing on this beer--maybe it's that it's miscast as a macro lager. I'd put it more in the range of a Czech pilsner--tasted like Pilsner Urquell to me, except fresher and thus better. Kind of a hobo's Duvel, without any of the manic yeast or deceptive bulk on its grain. Anyway, at 4 or 5 bucks a sixer, I'm not complaining. Went great with buffalo wings and hockey on the tube.

Appearance: Lighter than straw yellow with a quickly dying head and little-to-nothing lacing.

Smell: Tons of buttery residual sweetness. No hops. All candied, fake sweetness. I don't see how this is a Pils.

Taste: Kind of like soda crackers. There's not a lot there. A bit of residual, fake, and adjunct corn-esque sweetness dies. There's maybe a hint of hops, but that dies too. Just not very good or pleasant.

Mouthfeel: Not enough carbonation, and way too sugar-syrupy feeling, heightened by the lack of carbonation.

Drinkability: I could drink a few of these, but the quality seems way too long for even an attempt at a Pils. Most of the beers at TJs I can do, but this one's something that I wouldn't try again unless it was hot out, the beer was ice cold, and there was nothing else. But I may opt to snag another 6-pack of something else at a local mini-mart, especially if there was one nearby.

Hmm...I just drank/reviewed the Simpler Times Lager, and now this Pilsner pours a color exactly like the Lager. Sunny golden-yellow, well-filtered. The head is a little less creamy than the Lager, and doesn't stick around or stay as thick quite as long. Much slower/less bubble activity as well.

Nose manages to capture something of a German pils personality--bready with just a light snap of hops in there. Biscuity, malty and a bit of zing. Just barely good enough if it's trying to be your typical, drinkable, sturdy German pils and nothing more.

Flavor is a balance of bready malts, fruity hops and...not much else. Not anything here that's off-putting, other than that lack of depth and character. I'm not one to do this sort of thing, but I could see easily pounding back, oh, nine or 10 of these at a cookout or something, and would do so happily. But I probably wouldn't be left with much of an impression either, flavor-wise.

Mouth is crisp, just dry enough, and a good balance of slippery, silky and tingly.

There's not a ton of difference between this and Simpler Times Lager...this is just a little blander, and since the Lager was already bordering on bland, there isn't a ton to recommend here. Yet the Pilsner also avoids the pitfalls of so many lower-grade beers of this sort, and I guess I can respect it for that.

Pours a pale golden-yellow, smogged slightly by haze. A large bubbled white head rises on top, then recedes to baldness over the next minute or two.
Grainy nose with emphasis on cornmeal. Some misplaced fruity esters. Grassy and haylike later on, but the balance tends sweeter than I'd like.
More hay and corn as it hits the tongue, along with a follow-through of the fruity esters. Nothing much else to speak of, aside from that it finishes clean. Actually, most of the flavor simply disappears around midway.
Light bodied, fizzy. It's a typical Adjuct lager build. And features similar drinkability to other low-rung examples of the style. If considered a true pils, the scores would drop substancially.

Found a six-pack of cans of this old-fashioned looking brew at Trader Joe's in Naperville for $3.99.... lets see how this goes.

A - Bronze-gold with a one finger ivory head. Looks a tad better than BMC, but not much.

S - Sweet corn and husky grains. This brew smells like a corn farm in Iowa. There is also a gentle creamy vanilla note that reminds me of gas station vanilla creamer packets.

T - Hey, not bad! This has more power in the flavor than it does in the nose, and the flavor is much more intense than watery BMC brews. Still pretty basic, but tasty enough. The sweet corny .... almost malt liquor-esque ... flavor could get to ya after a while though.

M - Crispy carbonation and decent weight. Decently tasty and rather short finish.

D - For ultra-cheap beer, this is pretty dang good. It doesn't taste like a pilsener, and there is a malt-liquor roughness to it but hey, what do ya expect for a coupla bucks?

Pours a clear, piss-yellow with substantial head of creamy white carbonation. Thick but erratic lace.

Nose is grainy, malty, and borderline adjunct.

Tastes rich and malty/grainy, with a buttery toast character and only a slight hops presence. Nice body, and quite drinkable, though not one I'd pursue again, even at the Trader Joe's budget $3.99/6pk price.

When taken into account the price, $4 and 6 pack at Trader Joe's it's a real bargin! I'm really impressed with it and I am a BJCP beer judge. The low score is off when you really look at the bros rating of 90.

This brew pours a clear golden straw into a pint glass from a 12 oz. can. An inch of soapy white head offers lengthy retention and light lacing. A steady stream of tiny bubbles keep the the foam in place.

Sweet corn bread on the nose with some light hop notes. Rather light overall and without the clean hop notes more typical for the style.

Taste follows the nose and again is decent but a bit aside of the typical beer of the style. Somewhat creamy in nature with a light carbonation bite on the finish which thins out as the carbonation lessens. Hop flavors are mostly masked by the dry and fluffy mouthfeel and by the malt structure. Average drinkability overall.

Quite different than the Lager, this beer is best poured quite slowly to minimize the resilient foam and let the hops participate.

Picked up a can of this for $0.50 at Trader Joe's. Figured for 50 cents if it's good, that's a bargain, and if it's bad, I could probably entertain myself by pouring out the beer, crushing the can and playing can-soccer with my friends. So that's already a win/win.

Poured from the 12oz can in to a conical pint glass. Pours a pale golden yellow color with a decent head that was big and foamy.

Smells fruity and cirtusy, with a little bit of cut grass. Interesting aroma, but not bad.

The taste carries the aroma forward -- fruity and citrusy. Kind of sweet and lemony. Has a similar mouth feel to most canned, yellow, fizzy beers. Watery and thin, but that's to be expected. Not necessarily a bad thing either.

Overall it's a much better beer than I expected, especially considering it was only $0.50 for the single. FAR better than other "cheap" beers like Coors, Bud, etc. About on par with PBR in my book, though for different reasons. This beer is citrusy and summery, easy to drink, pretty good tasting and cheap.

IF you're considering buying it, then stop considering. Just do it. $4 for a 6-pack is a much better price than you'll find on pretty much anything else and it's actually fairly good.